Not Quite As Clueless
Matt Stearns of McClatchy Newspapers asks: Can broken primary system be fixed?
WASHINGTON – Florida’s defiant decision to hold its presidential primary weeks earlier than both national parties dictate highlights one inescapable fact: There’s no easy fix for this mess of a presidential nominating system.
Parties set rules and dates, but self-interested states ignore them with little fear of meaningful consequence or much concern for the national interest. Would-be reformers tout a variety of fixes – which the states find lacking. Congress suggests that it might step in, but the Constitution may not allow it.
The Florida Democratic party officials refuse to bend, so Robert C. of Interstate 4 Jamming provides Advice For January 29: Leave The Democratic Presidential Part Of The Ballot Blank!!!
The legislature knew the rules for both parties before it changed the primary date, but did it anyway. They assumed that the parties would go along. Well the parties can’t go along because there are 49 other states.
This is why the founders advised against parties: they knew the petty garbage that occurred in Britain and wanted to avoid it.
The Florida primary is now meaningless, even more meaningless than it was under the old primary date. Maybe we should write in “Katherine Harris” to give them a feeling for how ticked off we are, or change to “no party”, as it isn’t going to make a difference. Is it too much to hope for that we could hold an election in this state that wasn’t screwed up?
7 comments
hey! ohio got ahead of us last time. we couldn’t have that happening again.
the primary system was already broken, the candidates started campaigning way to early, and all the ones who are members of congress should have stayed in dc and voted to defund the war, rather than gallivant around the country sniping at each other. i’m holding out some small hope that this debacle will somehow bring about some kind of change in the system. someday.
They go from disaster to disaster. everyone wants to be first, and no one wants to wait their turn. Iowa and New Hampshire represent almost nothing about the country except small media markets.
Open primaries on the same day and the top two are on the November ballot.
Open primaries on the same day and the top two are on the November ballot.
i could live with that. i want purple fingers instead of voter id [although something for proof of age might be needed] and prisoners get to vote, even while they’re in prison.
with everybody rushing to be first in line, and voting so early in the process, thereby making themselves irrelevant, it might leave an opening for the straggling states to have a bigger impact.
I think if Florida wants to hold a straw poll, instead of a primary, there are some serious questions about deprivation of voting rights. They should push their date back to where it belongs.
hipparchia, I’m with you. Prisoners must have the right to vote, lest people be imprisoned in order to deprive them of that right. This has a lot of ramifications, of course. In a decent society there should not be a substantial prisoner class.
Voting rights is a concern for the general election, the primary election is controlled by the parties, and the parties in Florida have gone off the rails. The entire nomination process is a disaster and the parties should fix it or fold their tents.
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